The Autumn 2013 Baker Street Journal includes these articles:
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp.
Short Sentences: Deductions from a Few Words in “The Bruce-Partington Plans”
by Chris Redmond.
The Portable Newgate Calendar: Sherlock Holmes, Morphine Addiction, and the Psychology of the Savant
by Lyndsay Faye.
“Make a Long Arm, Watson”: Sherlock Holmes as Indexer
by Fred Leise.
John H. Watson: The Man and the Myth
by Leslie S. Klinger.
A Visit to Clyro Court
by Peter Calamai.
Sherlock Holmes, My (Comic Book) Hero
by Nancy Holder.
A Case of Paternity
by Terence Faherty.
Reflections on the Holmesic Hero
by Albert Silverstein.
Art in the Blood
by Scott Bond.
The Commonplace Book.
Baker Street Inventory.
The French Artist
by Basil Chap.
“Stand with me here upon the terrace . . .”
Letters to Baker Street.
Whodunit?
* * *
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp
“Let me whisper in your ear”
by Steven Rothman, Editor
Secrets are in the news, government secrets. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are at the heart of news stories that raise compelling and unsettling questions about what information governments gather and how they go about it.
For Sherlockians, there is an added layer: The world of the Canon is full of secrets involving both governments and individuals. Holmes’s attitude—when he is not solving a crime—is that secrets can remain secret. Yet there is something almost perverse about this. After all, Holmes is a detective; he detects. From the Latin root of the word, his job is quite literally to lift the roof off things.
Despite Holmes’s occupation, the rich and powerful, both in and out of government, approach him with their secrets. Yet why go to a man who uncovers to make sure things are covered up? It is a problem that doesn’t interest Holmes. He quite happily aids the ruling class, as well as other clients, in keeping secrets. He allows Watson to write about some cases while insisting he obscure identifying details (providing much thereby for the researches of Sherlockian scholars). Only the barest hint, for example, is made as to the identity of “The Illustrious Client.” In these situations Holmes, who so often asserts his independence, seems to be more deferent to the ruling class than one would expect from his bohemian nature. Alas, this must be yet another untold tale.
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp, Autumn 2013, Vol. 63, No. 3.
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